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Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Where your taxes go: 11

Look, I have no issue with ministers going abroad, sometimes the affairs of state demand this travel. But Kapil Sibal, the minister for science and technology, "spent over 100 days abroad during this period [between June 2004 and 2006], making 26 visits to over two dozen countries, including the US (eight times), France (twice), Switzerland, Sweden, Germany, Russia, Iceland, and Mexico."

Seriously, you tell me what possible justification there can be for Sibal to visit Iceland and Mexico, centres of cutting-edge technology though they no doubt must be. Indeed, I believe that the ministry of science and technology itself is redundant, and a waste of our tax money. It serves no purpose, apart from reminding us of the foolishness of the central planning that has plagued India for most of its independent existence.

What baffles me further is that the Rediff report goes on to state that "the Right to Information Act could not persuade his [Sibal's] ministry to part with information about the expenses incurred." To the best of my knowledge, the ministry simply isn't allowed to withhold this information about how our money being spent, which is what the RTI Act empowers us to ask. Bizarro.